Vengeance in Blood (Book 3): Reborn

by Watson, Thomas A.

  “You only instructed to find the one called Maliki, and it’s not his power I sense,” Thysan said.

  “Who and where are they?” Elizabeth demanded.

  “All I know is close. They aren’t any that I’ve felt before,” Thysan told her.

  “I don’t like this,” Tiffany said. “I’m getting the feeling when Maliki saw them looking around, they weren’t looking for him. They were looking for us.”

  “We just got here, hello?” Besseta sang out. “Kenneth wasn’t even born when this happened.”

  They all watched Damon close his eyes, taking slow breaths. When he opened his eyes, Damon slowly turned until his face was pointed at them. Kenneth saw Damon lock eyes with him and then glance at Besseta. “How?” Damon snarled and Elizabeth and Tonklyn looked their direction, but didn’t look at them.

  When his eyes turned to Tiffany, a look of recognition flickered in his eyes. “You’ve met one of my sons,” Damon grinned at her. “It’s a shame, you weren’t home.”

  “Who are you talking to?” Elizabeth screamed at Damon.

  Raising his arm, Damon pointed at the group. “Three, that have somehow cloaked.”

  Elizabeth gave a scoff. “None have ever cloaked that I couldn’t see.”

  “We know one. It’s the one Efrin talked to in Jerusalem, and paid a visit to her house in Greece,” Damon said and Kenneth heard Tiffany’s heart skip a beat.

  Elizabeth turned in their direction and snarled. “Tafka.”

  Hearing Tiffany’s given name, Besseta felt uneasy. “How in the crap can he see us, and that skanky ass whore can’t? We aren’t here!” Besseta snapped.

  The grin fell off Damon’s face as he turned to Besseta. “Skanky?” he asked, clearly confused.

  “Thysan, up!” Elizabeth shouted, and the giant moved much too fast for his size.

  “See ya,” Kenneth sang out and Tiffany felt a jolt hit her and she was falling through the ring of lights. When the second jolt hit, Tiffany was looking out over the tree-covered slope. Knowing it was impossible, but doing it anyway, Tiffany looked for the cubus and giant.

  “Oh, I’m going to flay the skin from their son’s body using a salty blade,” Tiffany growled, not seeing anything in the darkness.

  Besseta took a breath to ask a question and Kenneth’s hand pulled from hers as he collapsed in a heap. “Kenneth,” Besseta cried out, dropping next to him.

  Seeing his eyes were rolled back in his head, Besseta straightened out his body. “He’s unconscious,” Besseta said, then realized Tiffany wasn’t kneeling on the other side of Kenneth. She looked up and saw Tiffany looking along the ridge. Getting ready to panic, thinking the cubus were there, Besseta caught a scent she knew.

  Looking up the ridge, Tiffany shook her head. “Maliki, it’s not nice to spy,” Tiffany said, and a gust of wind blew and Maliki was standing in front of Tiffany.

  “Sorry, but the questions Kenneth was asking me about this place peaked my interest. May I ask, what the hell you three were doing, holding hands for three hours? And just who were you talking about?” Maliki asked.

  “Tiffany!” Besseta barked, making Tiffany and Maliki jump and turn to her. “Help me with Kenneth.”

  Kneeling beside Kenneth, Tiffany felt his skin and then raised an eyelid. “He’s unconscious,” Tiffany announced.

  Slowly, Besseta lifted her gaze to Tiffany’s face. “I know that, but is he okay?” Besseta growled.

  “Do you hear his mind?” Tiffany asked.

  Calming down, Besseta could hear random thoughts in Kenneth’s mind. “Yes, but he’s not answering me,” Besseta reported.

  “He needs time to rest and feed as soon as he wakes,” Tiffany told her and Besseta narrowed her eyes. “Don’t get mad at me. Kenneth just projected us back to the Civil War. Besseta, I wasn’t even on this continent that year. I was in France because I thought you were still there.”

  Maliki dropped down beside Tiffany. “Wait, you projected back to the day I was here?” Maliki shouted.

  “No, Kenneth did,” Besseta snapped. “Do you wear any other color than black? They’ve had other colors for eons.”

  Visibly shaken, Maliki fell back, throwing out his arms and catching his body before his back hit the ground. “Describe them,” Maliki challenged.

  “Their names were Elizabeth, Damon, and Tonklyn. The leviathan was called Thysan and holy shit, was he big!,” Besseta shouted. “They were cubus. All you can say, is they were pretty.”

  Using his hands and feet, Maliki scrambled away on his butt. “That’s impossible,” he cried out.

  “Hey, he took me to see a T-Rex, so don’t tell me what is possible,” Besseta snorted, liking the discomfort Maliki was showing.

  “Besseta, can you carry him?” Tiffany asked and Besseta looked at Tiffany like she was stupid. “There is a motel down the road. Get Kenneth there while I find someone for him to feed off of.”

  “Just how in the hell, can you know who to feed off of?” Besseta challenged.

  Jerking her thumb over her shoulder and pointing at Maliki, “I can’t, but he can,” Tiffany smiled.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Slowly, Kenneth cracked his eyes open, hearing voices. “Where’s the truck that ran over me?” Kenneth mumbled, lifting his upper body up and then realized he was in a bed. He looked around and saw he was in a bedroom. “She couldn’t get a room at Motel 6?” Kenneth chuckled, knowing he was in a motel.

  “I heard that,” Besseta said, walking in.

  Seeing Besseta wearing panties and a small tank top, Kenneth turned to the windows and saw light coming in around the curtains. He whipped his head around and looked at a clock on the bedside table. “It’s four in the afternoon?”

  Sitting down beside him on the bed, “Yes,” Besseta smiled.

  “How many days?” Kenneth asked.

  “Babe, you collapsed last night,” Besseta told him, reaching up and caressing his face.

  Still hearing voices, Kenneth sniffed the air. “Maliki’s here?”

  “Yes, he followed us to the park. He wanted to know why you asked so many questions about where he was, and where the cubus were.”

  “Damn, he must be good, if we didn’t realize he was close,” Kenneth said.

  Leaning over, Besseta kissed him. “To be honest, I heard his thoughts, but paid them no mind. And if I don’t concentrate on that person, I can’t track them by smell.”

  The door opened, and Tiffany walked in carrying an enormous thermal mug. “Drink,” Tiffany commanded.

  Smelling blood, Kenneth snatched the mug and turned it up, drinking in huge gulps. “I remember when you used to eat like that when I cooked,” Besseta laughed, watching Kenneth drain the mug.

  Lowering the mug, Kenneth smacked his bloody lips. “I still try to eat your cooking like that, but most of the time, I just can’t eat that much,” Kenneth confessed as Tiffany took the mug.

  Besseta just looked at Kenneth and then he realized, she was assessing his body. “He’s okay,” Besseta announced.

  “I could’ve told you that,” Kenneth laughed, throwing the blankets off and realizing he was naked. Quickly, he yanked the blankets back, “Sorry, Tiffany.”

  Throwing back her head, Tiffany started laughing. “I’ve seen you naked with bullet holes. Helped clean your naked body and just a few days ago, bathed with you and Besseta in a cold river naked because we were covered in blood.”

  “Um,” Kenneth mumbled, but couldn’t think of a reply as Tiffany continued to laugh and dropped the empty mug. “Trying to be civil,” he finally offered.

  Bending over and still laughing, Tiffany picked up the mug. “Oh, Besseta, you did good getting him,” Tiffany said, still laughing as she walked out.

  “I still can’t believe you let her wash my nasty ass,” Kenneth mumbled, looking at Besseta.

  “Hey, buddy. I didn’t know what to do and she did,” Besseta popped off. “You get hurt like that again, guess what? I’ll beg Tiffany to come an
d help wash after you take a dump in the bed!”

  Giving a shiver, “I’ll make sure that doesn’t happen,” Kenneth promised, and Besseta leaned over and kissed him.

  Hearing the thoughts in Kenneth’s mind as he rubbed her scantily-clad body, “Babe, we can’t. The motel is full, some football thing is going on and we can’t break this room,” Besseta told him and Kenneth gave a depressed sigh. “We don’t need attention here. Tiffany and Maliki caught the scent of werewolves with vampires last night when they hunted.”

  Getting out of bed, “Oh, really?” Kenneth smiled, looking around and spotting his leather riding gear. “They get an idea where they were?”

  “To the west,” Besseta chuckled, watching Kenneth pull on the leather riding pants. The chuckle died when Besseta heard his thoughts. “You want to track them down?” she sighed.

  “Hell yeah!” Kenneth huffed. “We kill these, and they won’t be able to join up in larger groups. I have no desire to face a wave of twelve-foot-tall snarling animals, ever again.”

  Shaking her head, “I know for a fact, many were bigger than that,” Besseta informed him.

  “You know what I’m saying. I want to fight smaller ones like we did in L.A.” Kenneth admitted, then looked up. “I can’t believe I just referred to ten-foot-tall, one thousand-pound werewolves as small.”

  “I can,” Besseta said, bouncing off the bed. “And I like fighting those much more. They are younger and make lots of mistakes.”

  Holding out her hand, Besseta led him out of the room and Kenneth paused before walking into a massive living room. “Say something and I throw you out the window,” Besseta warned, leading him over to a table.

  He saw Maliki reading a notebook and Tiffany writing in a notebook, both sitting at the table. “Good to see you up,” Maliki said, but didn’t look away from the notebook.

  “We’ve been putting down what we saw and heard,” Besseta told Kenneth as he sat down. When Kenneth went to stand, Besseta put a hand on his shoulder, keeping him in the chair.

  “I want to make some coffee,” Kenneth whined.

  “Thanks to you, I know how to do that, so sit,” Besseta told him, spinning around and heading for an open kitchen.

  “I love coffee, but it makes my hands tremble for days,” Maliki mumbled as he read.

  Seeing more notebooks on the table, Kenneth reached for one and stopped. An open notebook was sitting in front of the chair beside him, with a perfect drawing of Elizabeth in colored pencil. “Damn, she’s good,” Kenneth mumbled, pulling the notebook over.

  He flipped to the front and saw a detailed drawing of the leviathan facing him with his arms held out. The next page was a snapshot drawing of the three cloaked figures talking to the captain, with the leviathan behind them. Flipping slowly through the pages, Kenneth saw more drawings of the leviathan from different angles. Then, he got to the drawings of Damon from different angles. The next, were of Elizabeth. The first one showed Elizabeth looking at him and at the top of the page ‘Whore’ was scrawled in bold letters.

  “You are in deep, when my girl gets ahold of you,” Kenneth mumbled, flipping the page.

  “You don’t have any of Tonklyn,” Kenneth called out.

  “He’s dead,” Maliki said, turning a page.

  “Yeah, he’s dead, so I didn’t bother,” Besseta called out, turning on the coffee pot.

  Closing the notebook, Kenneth grabbed another one that was at Besseta’s spot. Opening it up, he saw drawings of the battle from different angles. The only constant in each picture were the cubus and leviathan. “One thing is for sure, they weren’t worried about gunfire,” Kenneth said.

  “Because they are pompous asses,” Maliki muttered. “But that works in our favor,” he added.

  When Besseta sat back down, Kenneth reached over and took a notebook from Tiffany. He opened it and it was a complete description of events; of everything Damon said and did. “Where in the hell were you two when I was a cop? With drawings and detailed reports like this, nobody would’ve ever gotten away,” Kenneth said, grabbing another notebook.

  The first thing he realized, was it wasn’t Tiffany’s or Besseta’s handwriting. Starting to read, Kenneth found it was a detailed report on Damon. “Maliki, you know that putz?”

  “Huh?” Maliki grunted, looking up at Kenneth. Seeing what Kenneth was looking at, Maliki dropped his eyes back to the notebook he was reading. “Yes, discovered him about seventy years after Herotho was murdered.”

  Hearing ‘murdered’ and not ‘died’, Kenneth gave a nod as he read. “So, you know Damon and Elizabeth’s son killed Herotho?”

  “I do now,” Maliki snarled, but didn’t look up. “The leviathans are more powerful than I thought. Xu told me they were impossible to sneak up on, and now I know why.”

  “Maliki, Efrin is mine,” Tiffany said in a cold voice. “We can share killing the parents,” she offered.

  “I know how to restrain them, so we can take our time,” Maliki nodded.

  “Pfft,” Kenneth scoffed. “You two don’t know shit about restraining vampires and such. My girl does, and you need to talk to her.”

  Pausing her drawing, Besseta patted Kenneth’s arm. “Thank you, baby.”

  “Hell, I was a cop and I don’t know shit about restraining compared to you.”

  “Besseta, may I borrow your basement?” Tiffany asked, looking over at Besseta.

  With a cheerful smile, Besseta nodded. “Only if I get to bring popcorn and watch.”

  “Deal,” Tiffany responded with a very dark grin.

  Kenneth had no doubt they were serious. Clearing his throat, Kenneth glanced over at Maliki. “Maliki, I don’t know if this is an appropriate question since I am new at this, but did you know who turned you? If it’s considered taboo, then please, don’t respond.”

  Dropping the notebook on the table, Maliki laughed. “It’s not a taboo question. In fact, it’s one of the most frequent questions our kind asks.”

  “Huh,” Besseta snorted. “I don’t.”

  Nodding, “Yes Besseta, but you are better than many of our kind, myself included,” Maliki said and turned to Kenneth. “Most of our kind were turned as she was, by force. As you’re aware, the change is quite painful and that’s the last injustice your attacker gets to inflict on you, excruciating pain for days on end and then, most die. Those that don’t die, find themselves in the same world, but with new rules that they must learn fast.”

  “I was spared some of that. I had help,” Kenneth nodded.

  Leaning back in his chair, “I’m sure they have told you, I served in the Roman army,” Maliki said, and Kenneth nodded. “I was a general in the year 24 B.C. over a legion of troops, my rank was legatus legionis. The Guals were beginning to become restless, and I was ordered to move in and assist in guarding the frontier, not too far from the present-day city of Hannover.”

  “Whoa,” Kenneth said. “Generals over legions were appointed by the emperor. You met Augustus Caesar?”

  Giving an impressed nod, “Yes, but I wasn’t a senator like many generals. I served under him as a captain over a cohort of troops. When Julius died and Augustus became emperor, he appointed me over a legion. And before you ask, yes, I met Julius. He was a rather remarkable and likable man,” Maliki replied.

  Seeing Kenneth wasn’t going to ask another question, Maliki continued. “Anyway, I was on the frontier and scouts reported a village being attacked. I gathered two cohorts, about a hundred and sixty men, and set off. It was dark when we arrived and found the village destroyed and on fire. As we were setting up camp, the attacks started. It wasn’t long before I realized we were under attack by strigoi, what we called edimmu; vampires. Contrary to modern belief, we had fought them before, but not with so few troops.

  “I gave orders for the troops to fall into a defensive circle when a figure latched onto the right side of my neck. As you know, the pain from a bite hurts so much it paralyzes the body, but I was able to thrust my gladius into my
attacker. Granted, it was a reflex before my body froze up, but that made my attacker release me. When I collapsed, one of my troops beheaded the vampire and it fell over on top of me. The stump of its neck was over my face.

  “As I lay frozen from the pain and lightheaded from blood loss, I heard the attacks continuing and realized it was more than one vampire. The blood pouring over my face nearly choked me to death as I lay listening to my troops getting wiped out. Then, a howl sounded in the distance and werewolves broke from the trees.

  “The werewolves just ran right through my troops, chasing the vampires. I didn’t find any of my troops that had been killed by the werewolves. Now, the werewolves weren’t protecting us, the vampires were feeding on their range,” Maliki paused, reliving the scene in his mind.

  Taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, he continued. “Again, luck was on my side, I had set up camp near a stream and managed to crawl to it before sunrise. There I lay for six days, hearing bears, wolves, real ones, and other carrion, eating the dead. When I was able to stand, I knew I was edimmu and could never again return home. I was sixty-two at the time of my second birth.”

  “Damn, you were changed by a fluke,” Kenneth mumbled.

  “Yes,” Maliki nodded. “But I know of others who were changed in battle with a vampire, getting a mouthful of blood when a limb was chopped off. Though, that is very rare.”

  “He wasn’t in the legions, during the fall of the Roman Empire,” Besseta snapped at Tiffany.

  “Besseta, you’ll have to forgive Tiffany because she really hates that part of my life. I was in Caesar’s army that sacked Alexandria,” Maliki sighed.

  A look of shock and horror sprang up on Besseta’s face. “Please tell me you didn’t help burn the library.”

  “No, I was outside the city constructing fortifications and contrary to belief, from what was talked about, the fire was an accident,” Maliki said, and Tiffany scoffed with her face set in stone. “Lucky for me, I had written orders and kept them. Otherwise, I don’t think I would be here right now.”